Transcript

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>>

FOREIGN]

> The battle for eastern Ukraine has moved into the living room. Poor reception of Kiev's tv channels in the east of the country means that Russia is winning more than just the ratings war. Routers senior correspondent in Ukraine is Alexandra Prentice.>> The issue is that while Ukraine controls the majority of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

00:00:21

The separatists control the main cities, Donetsk and Luhansk where the broadcasting capacities are. At least the main ones. As a result, many strategic frontline villages and towns have no access to Ukrainian TV, or very little. which means that in the battle of hearts and minds, Ukraine is at a sincere disadvantage.

00:00:39

>> Work is underway to rebuild transmitters damaged in two years of fighting in Ukraine's separatist crisis, but the fighting goes on. Smaller transmitters are shot at to keep Kiev off air and gag the government. Ukrainian troops on the frontline here, see the Minsk cease-fire deal violated daily and say, Russian propaganda is working.

00:01:00

>> We visited the front line town of and spoke to Ukrainian soldiers based there. They said that they had actually encountered hostility from locals. Not all locals, but some, who they believed had been watching Russian news or separatist news. And had been turned against the Ukrainian military as a result.

00:01:17

>> Locals gather in this town square to hear Ukrainian news piped through loudspeakers. Ukraine may be being outgunned in the information war, but where there is a will, there's a way.